Monica Kim Garza celebrates the female body in her work in the exhibition “She’s A Knockout” at Lowe  Art Museum at the University of Miami through Saturday, Sept. 14. (Photo by Douglas Markowitz)

It’s taken decades, but in 2024 it seems as though public enthusiasm for women’s sports have reached a tipping point. Whether it’s college phenom-turned-Indiana Fever rookie Caitlin Clark’s much-hyped entry into the WNBA or the continued growth of women’s soccer around the world, female leagues and competitions have never been more popular.

Now, the art world is starting to take notice, and just in time for the Paris 2024 Olympics. Featuring 11 artists and 15 sports, “She’s A Knockout,” a new exhibition focusing on women in sports, recently opened at the Lowe Art Museum-University of Miami. The timing may be right, but according to curator Caitlin Swindell, the show has been in the works for a while.

“I had noticed in recent years a lot of exhibitions that incorporated sports in some way,” Swindell, who worked at the Lowe before taking a job at the Vero Beach Museum of Art, says,“ but not much I’d seen really focused on women and identity with regard to sports.”

In her painting “Huddle,” Fay Sanders reinterprets an iconic work by Matisse. (Photo by Douglas Markowitz)

Indeed, there has been an effort from museums to look at sports through the lens of art. Swindell cites the soccer-focused “The World’s Game” at the Pérez Art Museum Miami and the basketball-themed “To The Hoop” at the Weatherspoon Art Museum in North Carolina, two shows that blended sports with contemporary art. A show at the Cummer Museum in Jacksonville, earlier this year also focused on women’s sporting attire from the early 20th century, and Swindell even looked into a 2001 photography exhibition at the Smithsonian titled “Game Face: What Does a Female Athlete Look Like?” She felt a different perspective was needed.

“A lot of people will say, ‘oh, this is an exhibition about sports,’ which it is in part. But I would say it’s more about identity and using sports as a vehicle to explore different facets of identity,” says Swindell.

Some artists drew on art history. In her painting “Huddle,” American artist Fay Sanders shows a group of girls gathered in a team embrace. The artwork’s colors are designed to resemble Matisse’s famous painting “La Danse,” but Sanders has clothed her subjects, refuting the original painting’s male gaze. Monica Kim Garza, on the other hand, proudly deploys near-nudity in her paintings, in which the American of Mexican and Korean heritage depicts curvy, brown-skinned women reminiscent of Gaugin. Again, instead of objectifying her subjects as the male artist did with Tahitian natives, Kim Garza shows them enjoying their bodies free of shame, surfing and playing tennis and golf.

Bruises turn into marks of honor in Riikka Hyvönen’s roller-derby paintings. (Photo by Douglas Markowitz)

The body is another emergent theme, especially in Finnish artist Riikka Hyvönen’s work. Her series “Roller Derby Kisses” depicts the bruises women sustained during roller derby matches, as well as the flamboyant hotpants that athletes wear. It’s a version of femininity that celebrates toughness without compromising style.

One section, the more documentarian “New Arenas,” shows female athletes making strides in some extremely macho disciplines. For “Sol y Sombra,” Spanish-French filmmaker Bianca Argimón followed Raquel Martín, a female matador who is also coached by a woman, a first for the discipline. The short film pairs training and performance footage with close-up shots of Martín’s elaborate suits-of-lights, commenting on the feminine, aesthetic aspects of a very masculine, gory tradition.

Zoe Buckman’s sculptures combine boxing equipment with fabric art, a medium traditionally regarded as feminine. (Photo by Douglas Markowitz)

American photographer Eddie Lanieri focuses on female boxers in Louisiana and Texas as part of her “Southern Bells” series. Nearby, British artist Zoë Buckman relates to her own experience of the sport with a series of sculptures: “Heavy Rag,” a punching bag covered with quilted linen, “Bubblegum Boxing Glove,” a small, pink blown-glass sculpture in the shape of a boxing glove, and a pair of hanging sculptures where gloves have been fashioned from various frilly and colorful fabrics.

“She’s A Knockout” examines women’s sports and female identity through art, such as in this photo series by Sophie Kirchner. (Photo by Douglas Markowitz)

The idea that women can exist and thrive in spaces traditionally dominated by men is central to one of the largest works in the show, a series of 12 photo portraits by German artist Sophie Kirchner called “Male Sport.” Photographed dead-center in square frames, the photos show female athletes immediately after they’ve finished a match in one of three intensely physical sports: Hockey, water polo, and rugby. It’s a work that forces us to question what we expect when looking at women. Are power, strength, and toughness acceptable, or do we prefer beauty, meekness, the things that animate traditional ideas of femininity? Take a look for yourself and decide.

WHAT:  “She’s A Knockout: Sport, Gender, and the Body in Contemporary Art”

 WHERE: Lowe Art Museum at the University of Miami, 1301 Stanford Drive, Miami

 WHEN: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Wednesday through Saturday, through Sept. 14.

COST: Free

 INFORMATION: (305) 284-3535 and lowe.miami.edu

Written By Douglas Markowitz
July 26, 2024 at 4:17 PM